Description: This report of OTA has conducted a study of a wide range of topics, some of which have recently been receiving a great deal of scrutiny inside and outside the government. In order to derive information specific enough to guide possible congressional action and to be responsive to the requesting Committees, this examination of the issues is specifically tied to particular life-sustaining technologies and their use with patients who are elderly. At the same time, much of this information is applicable to life-sustaining technology in general and to citizens of all ages.

Description: This report reviews international research activities in the field of neurotoxicology that will provide a broad overview of research dealing with neurotoxic chemicals that may represent a health hazard to human population.

Description: This report focuses only on policy implication of video display terminals (VDT) usage in the areas of composition and edition/correction. The rest of the paper presents a brief discussion of the problems resulting from VDT adoption and usage in the office workplace, and the policy implications of both primary and instrumental impacts as described earlier.

Description: This report discusses the Soviet education in the science and engineering that has been characterized by major quantitative achievements and serious qualitative and administrative shortcomings.

Description: This report discuses distance learning projects, and ways telecommunications technologies such as satellites, cable television, fiber optics, slow scan TV, instructional television fixed services, and microcomputer networking have opened up opportunities for school districts to coordinate schedules and to share resources.

Description: This report describes current treatment practices of life-sustaining technologies by providing tables and figures. It discusses the characteristics of the decision-making process, as well as other issues in antibiotic use.

Description: This report presents an analysis of the scope and quality of the current supply of educational software, as well as analysis of the information sources available to educational software acquisition.